This was an article written by a dear friend of mine, Elaine Ball, in response to my article “Russell M Nelson of the Mormon Church Speaks on Equal Rights.” This is very well written and I thought highly worth sharing. Feel free to leave any comments and I’ll make sure that Elaine gets them and is able to respond to them.

Please Respond to Russell M Nelson

by Elaine Ball Fri 7:27pm

May 16, 2007:

” Our business is not political; our business is to abide by the concept of separation of church and state. Our business is to teach a better way of life, to teach the principles and doctrines of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is our mission. And our business is not to elect or to influence public elections;… We maintain a political neutrality.”

Why can’t we focus on the beautiful parts of our religions and beliefs – and take out the parts that influence us to legally take away rights and liberties and free will from other human beings? How about the LDS church continue “teaching a better way of life,” and stop spending time and energy “influencing public elections?” There are incredibly beautiful things about this religion. I know. It was the love of the first 20 years of my life. And there are incredibly wonderful and loving people in this religion. I hope that they will come to see that their leaders have been hypocritical and that churches do not belong influencing politics – leaders of those churches even apparently agree – when it suits them. What if any other church tried to influence politically and legally how you live your lives? WHOSE RIGHTS ARE NEXT?

If my God taught that you didn’t have any right to get married, I would have every right to believe that. But I would have NO right, in America, to take away that right from you because I believed my God said it should be so. It’s the same as people who believe their God tells them not to marry members of a religion different than theirs. They can do as they believe, and only marry members of their own religions. But they CAN NOT legalize such an idea, so far as to say “No Adult Member of The United States of America May Marry Any Other Adult Unless Both Adhere to Identical Religious Beliefs.” Or take ANY OTHER religious belief that YOU personally don’t agree with, from another religion or belief system than your own, and ask yourself how you would feel if that belief were made law, and you could no longer live YOUR OWN LIFE the way YOU and YOUR BELIEFS told you was right and beautiful and true and good.

This is NOT about the definition of Marriage. It’s about families being torn apart because you have chosen to ignore the fact that they are families. Because they look different from your family, you have told them they can’t choose to be a family. No one can truly fight to take that right away from another human being and actually feel they have done the right thing – once they see that this is what they have done – please, please see – that no one can tell a mother of her own children that because she loves someone of her same gender, her children and her partner can not have the same legal and social benefits as can you, because your religion says that you deserve them, and she does not?

How is this showing love for those who believe differently than you? Taking away their lives, their families, their loved ones, their children, tearing them down and telling them they don’t deserve what you have? Why don’t they? Because they are different than you? You are different than many other people, too! Don’t you see, that when we start taking away any group’s rights, we have began taking away rights of ALL AMERICANS, and we could be next? Your rights could be taken away by anyone who believes differently than you. That is what you have done. You have taken away rights from someone who believes differently than you.

Please – please join with me to fight for these rights. For YOUR OWN rights, because I will fight for no other group to be able to take away your rights to live your lives in accordance with your own beliefs, as well. I will fight for you when the day comes. Please see that this is what America is about, and come and get to know us for who we are.

Protect all families

Public Forum Letter
Updated: 11/28/2008 04:46:23 PM MST

I am straight, married and I support marriage equality. California’s Proposition 8 did pass, but the quest for marriage equality will not end.

As long as minority rights are enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, one day same-sex marriage will be legal in all 50 states. This is because it is a civil right based on love, commitment and the protection of families — families that may not look like yours or mine but which are still fundamental building blocks of our society.

So if you are anti-gay, my faith says I can forgive your intolerance. If you oppose redefining marriage for others based on your religion, my response is: “What’s it to you?”

I was just flipping around Google today, when I found an interview that the Pew Forum had with Russell M Nelson, of the Mormon church’s “12 apostles” on May 16, 2007. One comment by Mr. Nelson really stuck out to me. He said, “We feel that as we maintain the integrity of our religious institutions and preserve tolerance of each others sacred beliefs, we can preserve the strength of pluralistic society. We can promote tolerance and understanding.”

This comment, and other similar church released statements continues to fascinate me. How can any group continue to laud it’s compassion, understanding and tolerance towards others, while at the same time work as hard as it can to strip others of those “sacred beliefs” and liberties?

I’m really trying to put this into perspective, and the analogy that keeps popping into my head comes from one of my favorite books, “1984.” In the book, the country is at war with another country, and during a rally, a government speaker is working the crowd, toting the evils of this other nation. Then half way through his speech, someone passes him a note letting him know that the country they were at war with is now an ally, and another country is now who they’re fighting. The speaker doesn’t even miss a beat, he changes almost mid sentence to talk about this new country they’re at war with. The people in the crowd don’t even notice, nothing has changed, they’ve ALWAYS been at war with the 2nd country, and the 1st country has ALWAYS been their ally.

It’s not a perfect comparison, but it scares me just as much. How do more people not see what’s going on? They so crave and glory in the message of love that their church teaches, but at the same time, join in on it’s fight against love. But these same people, when asked about it, claim to “love everyone,” they just don’t want them to have any freedom of their own.

And for those who have been saying that the LDS church is absolutely correct to be involved in politics. Later in the same interview, Mr. Nelson (again of the “Quorum of 12 Apostles”) said, ” Our business is not political; our business is to abide by the concept of separation of church and state. Our business is to teach a better way of life, to teach the principles and doctrines of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is our mission. And our business is not to elect or to influence public elections;… We maintain a political neutrality.”

Now correct me if I’m wrong. But I think that this last statement makes Elder Russell M Nelson of the LDS church’s Quorum of 12 Apostles, one of the biggest advocates of the hypocrisy of what the church did on Prop 8 in California, Prop 3 in SLC, and religion being involved in politics in general. Wouldn’t you say that’s true?

This post is mostly in reply to several of the comments people have posted arguing against Gay Marriage.

Just a quick thought for you. According to LDS doctrine, how did Satan come to be? Well when God proposed that the world be created Lucifer said that he would FORCE everyone to do the “right” thing so that they would return to live with God, and all the glory would be his. Think about that for a minute, he did not become Satan by trying to get people to be evil, that was a result of his being cast out. He became Satan by trying to MAKE people be “good.” According to LDS doctrine, Jesus became the Messiah by wanting people to be able to make their own choices.

Now how would you describe trying to outlaw this new civil rights movement with Gay Marriage? Would you call it forcing people? Or would you call it being Christ-like? Just some food-for-thought.

The LDS and other churches have maintained that fighting the “good fight” for traditional marriage was of up most importance for the past year or so. Mormon church leadership led off with the now infamous letter to all Californian members encouraging them to get out and support Prop 8, through both time and financial means. Church members responded with an enormous showing of support, following “God’s call” through “his prophet” to not allow such a horrible thing to continue.

Have you ever thought about what an amazing thing that was? It was enormous and inspiring to see a group of people come together so quickly for something they believe in, and make such a huge contribution (in excess of $20,000,000.00)

Now before you get too confused. Here’s my point. To quote Keith Olbermann, “THIS is what your God tells you to do? … THIS is what your HEART tells you to do?” There are a lot of problems in this world, so many things need attention, so many things need our help financially! And gay marriage is what the Mormons (and others) felt needed the most attention?

According to “Ask Yahoo,” 16 people die of starvation every minute. That equals roughly 691,000 per month (30 days). So from June when the LDS church released that statement to it’s members, to Nov 4th, roughly 3,456,000 people died of starvation in the world. Have you really thought of that? Have you really thought about what a selfish and arbitrary thing that was? Do you think that 20+ million US dollars would have impacted that? Let me help, YES!!

People, there are a lot of really good things in this world that are really worth your time, worth your thoughts and worth your money and passion. The Mormons give alot of money to the worlds welfare, but when asked to do more, you instead chose to attack people who aren’t trying to do anymore, than just create a little more love and stability in a bleak and increasingly loveless world. Why can’t we focus on loving each other, and accepting them for who they are. It doesn’t matter what your religion is, love is love. And it’s hypocritical to think that you can love someone, while at the same time deny them equality.

I’ve been speaking with several people over the past month or so about the issue of Equal Rights and Gay Marriage, both through this weblog, and in other places. Being in Utah, I have of course found several people who disagree with my opinions, and the conversation has invariably come down to that they just don’t want their children being exposed to legalized Gay Marriage. For all those who have come to this conclusion, I would like to pose a question to you, please take some time to think about it, then post your reply. Love to you all!

“What would you do if one of your children came to you and told you that he/she was gay?”

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Eric Ethington

"Eric, trying to have this conversation (lgbt rights) with you is ultimately like trying to teach a pig to dance, it just annoys the pig. So Eric, sorry to annoy you."
-Paul Mero, The Sutherland Institute.